Did you know that there's a longer, more in-depth version of this newsletter? The twice-monthly "Search Engine Update" newsletter is just one of the many benefits available to Search Engine Watch members Learn more about the advantages to becoming a member at this page:

Happy Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night to everyone in the United Kingdom!

Within the site, the Jupiter Media Metrix Search Engine Ratings page has been updated. It shows how some portals made slight gains after the closures of Go and NBCi. It also has a detailed look at the growth of Google in contrast to AltaVista's decline.

Did you miss the Search Engine Strategies conferences held earlier this year in the United States? Don't worry -- you've got one more chance in 2001. On November 14 & 15, Search Engine Strategies will be coming to Dallas, Texas.

Once again, I've organized two days' worth of sessions packed with information about search engine marketing. If you are a beginner and know little, the conference will bring you up to speed. Advanced? There are plenty of in-depth sessions to choose from. Been to Search Engine Strategies before? There are a number of new and improved panels.

In addition to creating the event program, I'll also be speaking at the conference, along with other search engine marketing experts. There will also be speakers from the major search engines themselves, including About.com, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, FAST Search, Google, Inktomi, LookSmart and Overture (GoTo).

Search Engine Strategies is also returning to Europe this year, coming to Copenhagen on December 12. I'll be speaking at that event, along with other experts and search engine representatives. The program is being organized by I-Search moderator Detlev Johnson and European-based search engine marketing expert Mikkel deMib Svendsen.

Those interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at the events should contact Frank Fazio Jr, ffaziojr@internet.com, for more information. Those interested in attending can find conference agendas and more information via the URLs below. For Dallas, be sure to see the "Conference at a Glance" page, if you've come before, for a rundown on what's new.

It's been some time since I would have suggested that anyone turn to Lycos to search for anything, but today's relaunch of Lycos is a surprising reversal of the service's decline. If you gave up on Lycos in the past, it is well worth revisiting the improved service.

The Lycos of the past year or so was a terrible mishmash of poor results and confusion. Queries on popular topics tended to bring back results that simply recirculated you back into content only from Lycos. Paid listings were placed at the top of the page as "Featured Listings," then also often stuffed into the "Popular" area, then usually inserted again as another "Featured Listings" detour in the middle of the editorial results.

These past sins are now forgiven. The new layout is clean, well-delineated and features high-quality listings provided by FAST Search. While I'd still give Google the relevancy edge, the improvements FAST Search has made in the past few months have made it an extremely strong contender in the relevancy race.

The changes at Lycos came right as I was finishing the newsletter (of course), so I'll do a fast rundown of the results page and highlight the key points:

You'll usually see three paid listings from Overture (GoTo), at the top of the results page, and these are well identified by the new "Sponsored Search Listings" heading. I think this is much clearer for those who want to know where paid listings appear, and Lycos deserves praise for making the change.

The "Web Results" area is where you will find crawler-based listings provided by FAST. However, if Lycos has its own content relevant to your search, this may appear as the number one listing and is noted as "From The Lycos Network." It's a compact way to alert you to the company's own information, which certainly may be useful, without getting in the way of results across the web, for those who want them.

Lycos is still making use of human-compiled information from the Open Directory, but users are given access to this now through category links that appear below the crawler-based results, within the "Categories" section at the bottom of the results page. Take a moment and review these options -- you may find that a category link helps you narrow in on what you are looking for better than the numbered listings.

Be aware that if you search again using the box at the bottom of the results page, your search will be run only against Open Directory information, not against the crawler-based listings, as was the case with your original search. I think this may be confusing to some people and personally would prefer that the box operate by default just as it does from the Lycos home page.

If you do want to search again against the crawler-based listings, the easiest thing is to scroll back up to the top of the results page, and use the search box there.

The new listing format officially went live today, though you may have encountered it since late last week. The Lycos home page also sports a new look, and the navigational theme and icons at the top of the page carry through to other Terra Lycos-owned web sites, such as HotBot.

It seems that every so often, someone makes a new push to suggest that the search engine marketing industry needs to establish standards of conduct. The idea usually dies away from a lack of support. However, a new effort is underway from several different parties that might have more luck. They'll need that luck, because the barriers to establishing standards remain substantial. You can find the full article via the URL below:

As the nature of search engine promotion has expanded and matured, the label "search engine optimization" hasn't seemed to cover what some companies and individuals feel they do. But what should come to replace it, if anything?

The venerable phrase "search engine optimization" originally emerged to cover the optimization that was done for crawler-based search engines. Now directories are a big part of the search engine mix, as are paid listing services. In many cases, you aren't really "optimizing" for these other venues, but you certainly are doing work that can influence how people are listed.

Personally, my preferred successor term is "search engine marketing." I've been using that since the middle of last year in some cases, especially when describing what's taught at the Search Engine Strategies conferences.

I've like the term because I feel it encompasses many things: optimizing for crawlers, managing paid listings, submitting to directories -- you name it. All of these activities are marketing on search engines.

I've never really pushed that term much in my writings, primarily because I didn't want to introduce yet more jargon into an industry that can already be confusing to newcomers. Indeed, it's only been until relatively recently that I've felt the phrase "search engine optimization" or the acronym "SEO" has begun to mean anything to those outside the immediate industry.

I've now changed my mind, primarily due to a poll that happened on the I-Search mailing list in September. Various terms were suggested to readers, and "search engine marketing" came out on top, with 39 percent of the votes. Just behind was "search engine optimization," with 35 percent.

It was close enough to make me think about sticking with SEO just for consistency. However but the desire for a broader term is clearly there, so I'm going to make the change. I'll still make use of "search engine optimization" in my writings, but this will begin to diminish over time and be replaced by search engine marketing.

What about all those other terms, such as "search engine submission," "search engine registration" or "search engine positioning?" On my "Intro To Search Engine Submission" page below, you'll find some specific definitions for each of these terms. Remember, these are my definitions only. Others may choose to use the same terms to mean different things. However, if you like my definitions, then certainly feel free to use them.

Netscape Search used to be a powerhouse in the search world, because so many people were routed to it via the Netscape browser. Those heady days have declined, as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser now commands the lion share of web users. However, Netscape Search has a new lease on life, via the AOL Time Warner network. Learn more about some changes to the service and how AOL Search fits in, via the URL below:

No one doubts that Yahoo is one of the web's most popular portals. However, unlike its major rivals MSN and AOL, Yahoo has no "browser advantage" to drive traffic to its web site, a weakness that the new "Yahoo Essentials" program for Internet Explorer aims to correct.

By browser advantage, I mean the fact that because so many people use Internet Explorer or AOL's own software, Microsoft and AOL Time Warner have the ability to drive millions to their online properties. In contrast, Yahoo lacks any natural advantage.

Traditionally, Yahoo has gained users through its brand recognition. In the same way that word of mouth now drives people to Google, so too did Yahoo gain users, in the past. Yahoo still gains users this way, but it also has advertising as another method to bring them in. Now, the company is eyeing Internet Explorer as a new traffic generator.

Searchwise, the new Yahoo Essentials tool changes Internet Explorer's behavior so that searches conducted within the address bar resolve to Yahoo, rather than through MSN Search. Additionally, the Internet Explorer search button is also changed to query Yahoo.

The idea of jumping into the browser to get users isn't new. Google's toolbar, though it doesn't change any of IE's settings, still provides IE users with easy access to the search engine (and if you haven't gotten it, do so. It's an outstanding tool). AltaVista and Lycos also released IE enhancements, in the past.

Even Yahoo had a "Companion" tool that added a search box to IE, similar to how the Google Toolbar works. However, Yahoo has upped the ante by going beyond simply adding on to Internet Explorer in favor of modifying it.

Meanwhile, Yahoo and MSN squabbled among themselves last month over who had the largest audience. Yahoo cited figures from NetRatings to back its claim, while MSN used those from Jupiter Media Metrix.

To complicate matters, NetRatings has now acquired Jupiter Media Metrix, which means the favorite game of citing figures from the company that shows you best will now be harder to play, for web operators such as Yahoo and MSN.

Finally, as if having Yahoo go after its users was not enough, a recent change to the MSN site caused those not using Internet Explorer to get an error message saying they needed to get a better browser. Internet Explorer was the suggested option. After an outcry, Microsoft finally removed the block.

We're the biggest, says Yahoo. No, we're the biggest, counters MSN. A look at the dueling audience figures. Yahoo claims its 210 million unique visitors worldwide in September -- as measured by NetRatings -- makes it the largest global web property. MSN says it had 270 million unique visitors according to former NetRatings-rival Jupiter Media Metrix.

Another story on the audience dispute. Note the analyst comment that the time a user spends on the site is more important than the site's audience figures. That's wrong. The statistics, any of them, mean nothing on their own. So what if a portal has someone on their site for an average of an hour per month? If their competitor only keeps visitors for 30 minutes per month but earns more per visitor, then the time means nothing. Or if a web site has millions more visitors than its rivals but fails to earn much from them, it's not going to stay in business -- as anyone watching the dotcom fallout over the past year understands well.

So I finally install Netscape 6.1, then try to listen to a CD in my computer. Suddenly WinAmp has taken over and continually tries to connect to the Internet, though I'm offline. What's going on? And there's new options in my Start Menu that I need to remove, plus new bookmarks riddled through my Favorites. Pamela Parker had a similar experience with software that does things you never expected or asked for.

Search engine spiders and crawlers with other purposes pose significant problems to site owners. In particular, they can skew page view statistics, which means that advertisers might pay for impressions that human beings never see.

If only there were a public list of all the spiders operating, so that they could be filtered out! That's what the Interactive Advertising Bureau is now offering, in conjunction with ABCi. Of course, it makes you wonder what all those advertisers have been doing -- or not doing -- to filter out robotic queries without such a list.

Spiders can also overburden web servers, which is why the robots.txt protocol was created years ago. A subsequent list of spiders was also established, but the self-reported nature of this means that it may miss many spiders. In contrast, ABCi has maintained its own list by watching for spider behavior, as having a good list is essential to its auditing business.

No matter how good the ABCi list is, it still faces challenges. Some spider operators will fail to list themselves or may actually try to disguise that they are spiders, such as those that harvest email addresses off of web pages.

Not content with being the only major search engine to list PDF files, Google now lists Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from across the web, as well as Rich Text Format and PostScript files. Chris Sherman has a full-report on the new file formats in the SearchDay article, below.

Google is also testing "Page Snapshots" with a small number of its users. These are small thumbnail images that appear to the left of each listing. They show in thumbnail format what the listed page looks like.

Don't go trying to look for an option to see this feature! It's simply something that will happen to about one percent of Google's users, and only to those who are detected to have high-bandwidth connections. The company says that if response to the thumbnails is positive, then they may be rolled out as a standard feature.

By the way, if you are seeing them and don't like them, use the "Preference" link from the Google home page, then switch off the "Page Snapshots" option.

Meanwhile, as Google's popularity has swelled, so has the interest in getting listed in the service from webmasters. To help with this interest, Google has been moving forward on a number of fronts. It has posted new information for site owners, opened an automated removal tool and even created an online forum for Google questions.

Last month, the "Google Information for Webmasters" area was unveiled. It provides answers to many questions webmasters have about how their pages are listed with Google, such as:

Getting Listed

Not Listed

Incorrect Listing

Rank Questions

Dos and Don'ts

Facts & Fiction

FAQ

The ability to remove pages, page descriptions or cached copies of pages has also been made easier for webmasters. In particular, an automatic removal tool went up in the summer that lets you remove web pages, images, dead links or newsgroup posts in about 24 hours.

A Google newsgroup also opened in early September. It's meant to be for all things Google, not just webmaster issues. Nevertheless, site owners may find help with listing issues there.

Google says it doesn't monitor the group on a regular basis but rather now and then. It primarily relies on Google users to help each other, though it will provide assistance directly, if seen as necessary or useful. Google says it also may break out sub-groups for particular topics in the future, if appropriate.

In-depth review of new coverage of non-HTML files provided by Google. Google says that it now has more than 35 million non-HTML files in its index, including 22 million PDF documents. Microsoft Word documents are the next most popular format, followed by PostScript files, Google says. Search Engine Watch members -- use the link on this page to reach the members-only edition written for you, which covers issues about making sure the titles of your non-HTML documents make sense and how to prevent non-HTML documents from being indexed.

Is Google planning a subscription-based search service for the corporate market? An employee suggested this would come. However, Google later said that the employee was only talking casually about business areas that Google might explore and that there are no actual plans to do this in the works. "We're not talking about subscription-based services at all," said spokesperson Cindy McCaffrey.

Earlier this year, it emerged that AltaVista had not refreshed any of its country-specific web page indexes for months. Now, it turns out that the main global database is also several months old.

It's a PR black eye that the service didn't need. AltaVista has been losing its audience steadily over the past year, with Google looking to be the big winner. To regain that audience, AltaVista has continued to proclaim for over a year that it is focused on search. Unfortunately, it's failing to deliver on that promise.

Back in March, AltaVista made a lot of noise about a new crawling system that was going to revisit each page in its index on a monthly basis or even sooner, if a page required it. Here we are in November, and that system doesn't seem to be working. Such a long delay doesn't promote confidence that AltaVista will get its act together.

To be fair, some parts of AltaVista's index were fresher than you could find at Google. For example, in mid-October, the listing for the CNN home page was only a few days old. This could easily be spotted by looking at the date of the listing. In contrast, Google's listing for CNN was still dating back to Sept. 13 -- though you would only know this by viewing Google's cached copy of the page.

That's more the exception that the rule, however. The vast majority of AltaVista's content out of date, which the company itself admits. There is one exception. Anyone who stumped up money over the past few weeks got their pages either included or revisited in a current fashion.

It's worth recalling that when AltaVista rolled out paid inclusion, it promised that regular spidering of "free" content would continue, albeit at a slower monthly refresh rate. That pledge has been broken.

Freshness is a key component for any crawler-based search engine, but verifying freshness can be difficult. One standard that all the crawlers should immediately implement would be to list the date that they last visited each page. Then, at a glance, any user could easily tell exactly how fresh -- or how old -- a search engine's listings are.

AltaVista also will no longer gather its own shopping search information but instead plans to outsource for this feature, in the near future.

"We have been approached by several leading shopping sites who are interested in becoming a strategic partner for us in this space," said spokesperson Kristi Kaspar.

AltaVista gained its own shopping search ability via the Compaq acquisition of Shopping.com back in January 1999. Despite outsourcing shopping search, the company does plan to continue producing its own web-wide search index.

CMGI still owes Compaq $220 million, apparently for the purchase of AltaVista. A new deal reduces this to $75 million in cash, $7 million in CMGI stock and a 49 percent stake for Compaq in CMGI's B2E Solutions.

In a new program aimed at earning revenue from web site owners, AltaVista will now allow listings to be "enhanced" with icons and other customized features. Basic details can be found here, directly from AltaVista. Chris Sherman is also planning a longer look in the SearchDay newsletter, later this week.

Short details on closure of AltaVista's shopping search. AltaVista is "entirely committed" to continuing to operate a consumer-oriented search site, however. Sorry about the big, long URL. That's just the way this site does it. If the URL doesn't work, then try searching for the story title, at this site.

Excite is closing its NewsTracker service as of November 15, while its "Search Voyeur" live display feature closed last month. That service showed what people were searching on at the Excite service. It grew out of the WebCrawler Search Ticker and thus was the first and oldest of the live search displays offered.

For those of you who were still depending on NewsTracker for news search needs, don't worry. There are plenty of great alternatives, which you will find below.

While we seem to be waiting for Excite slowly disappear, sibling service Excite UK says that it's business as usual, thanks to having BT as a joint venture partner. Of course, BT's having its own financial difficulties....

Heightened security concerns have led a number of organizations to remove "sensitive" information from their web sites, yet much of this information is still available, even to people with relatively modest searching skills. Use the link from this page to reach the extended "members-only" version.

About.com slashes staff and axes more than 300 topic 'Guide' sites from its service, with significant implications for webmasters and searchers alike. Use the link from this page to reach the extended "members-only" version, which includes information on submitting to About.

Search Engine Watch associate editor Chris Sherman has coauthored a new book on the Invisible Web. As a companion to that book, this new site makes available hundreds of Invisible Web resources that are useful to searchers. Check out the site, to find resources, to learn more about what the Invisible Web is and to learn more about the book.

If you like the idea of seeing your web results visually, this meta search site shows the results with sites being interconnected by keywords. Normally, I find these type of attempts fail to be compelling, but this one was kind of fun. Thanks to reader G. Charriau, for the passing it on.

LookSmart acquires people and tools to help it do online marketing tracking. The company's press release about the acquisition says that this technology will be used to help LookSmart advertisers track the return on their spending with the company.

Harder look at Google's success, well worth a read. Points out that in the site search and intranet enterprise market, the company has far to go. However, the company can deliver much more than a "handful" of ads on its pages, however. Indeed, for popular terms such as "cipro," Google will deliver up to eight paid listings versus 10 editorial listings. That's a 44 percent ad break; albeit one that's not typical, for most terms. Also points out that Google did not win out against Inktomi to power some results for MSN and AOL.

Google has a pretty cool feature that allows those using WAP browsers to use a special version of the search engine where the search results are formatted for small screens. In addition, when you visit any link, Google continues to convert HTML into a WAP format on the fly, making it an easy way to view the web while mobile. This technology makes it no wonder that the search engine is making gains among wireless providers, such as this latest deal with AT&T. It follows on earlier deals with Sprint PCS, Cingular Wireless, Handspring, Palm and Vodafone.

There are now over 8 million web sites according to researchers at the Online Computer Library Center, but the web's growth has slowed markedly when compared to previous years. The vast majority of web sites are written in English -- 73 percent, with German coming in at second place with 7 percent.

Some protestors in Pakistan against the bombings in Afghanistan were holding posters with images of Osama bin Laden -- and one of those images showed him sitting alongside Sesame Street's Bert. What happened is that a joke photograph showing the two together is available on various sites across the web. Because of this, a search for "osama bin laden" on Google's image search service brings up the parody alongside other pictures of bin Laden. Presumably, protestors seeking pictures of bin Laden did a Google search and found the Bert-Osama picture. That's also not really an "error" on Google's part, as the headline of the first article above puts it, because the parody does include bin Laden. The second article explains that the original "Bert Is Evil" site has now closed. However, the image that Google lists was probably copied from that site to another site, so you'll still find the picture appearing in its search results.

The porn industry is widely known to produce some of the worst search engine spamming. Ironically, there's now an anti-porn group that's also turning to search engine spam to get out their message. They have apparently generated thousands of cloaked pages that promise porn content to viewers but instead deliver an anti-porn message.

As of November 1, FAST will be powering search results for T-Online, Germany's biggest ISP. It's just another of the company's big wins in the European search space. In some other news, the larger index that FAST plans is supposed to go live either toward the end of this year or early next year.

Compares and contrasts the success with advertising that Google and Overture (GoTo) have been having. Despite what the article says, my understanding is that both of Google's ad programs operate on a CPM basis.